Remus, a ranger

“My name is Remus, a ranger.” The man solemnly said.
“A ranger? So you just run around in these woods and help people out of the goodness of your heart?” Lillian wondered.
“Yes, something like that.” Remus smiled faintly.

After that, he went on to explain to Lillian that the villagers that had captured her were the offspring of raiders, murderers and rogues who had fled into the woods in earlier days.

The “sacrifice” was a ritual that was carried out when one of the Stalkers was found to be prowling round their hidden village.

“A stalker?” Lillian asked.

The Stalkers were a strange, semi-demonic and all-male type of beasts that had been brought to these lands by foul magic a long time ago; it was believed that they had originally been planted there to terrorize the elves. Over time, the first ones had died and their original purpose had been forgotten.

“Why only half-demonic?” Lillian asked Remus.
“Because it would have been too large a strain on whoever cast the summoning spell to have three dozen strong demons running around in Adaja. Therefore weaker demons were used, after having been given the ability to breed with females belonging to the humanoid species.”
“Yuck…”
“Exactly.”

Apparently the mixture of blood had led to the Stalkers becoming less demonic, some of them even bordering on being rather decent creatures that did little harm to anyone.

The problem was of course that somewhere along the line of time, humans had started to believe that the genitals of a Stalker could be dried and powdered into a powerful aphrodisiac.

Naturally, some of the none too bright and all too perverse noblemen in Tabriz and abroad were willing to pay good money for an aphrodisiac like that.

And also quite naturally, the Stalkers were none too happy about being hunted down and killed due to some myth about the sexual power of their balls.

So Remus’ mission was to keep track of both the Stalkers, killing the more brutal ones if possible, while watching over both the brutal villagers and the greedy hunters that ventured into Adaja.

“But who’s hiring you then?” Lillian asked, still intrigued by why Remus was there.
“Well, the elves are, I suppose.” He answered.
“The elves!?”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“Can you take me to them?” Lillian was now quite ecstatic over having found a man that could lead her to the elves.
“No, I couldn’t do that.” Remus’ reply cut Lillian’s hopes down, “I don’t know if you can be trusted. After all; I saved your life, not the other way around.”
“However…” Remus went on, “you can always prove to me that you can be trusted.”
“What is it that I have to do?” Lillian wondered.